Translating Race across Time and Space

The Creation of Somali Bantu Ethnicity

Datos Bibliográficos

ID18965296
AutoresCatherine Besteman (Colby College, autor de correspondencia)
Año2012
Volumen19
Número3
Páginas285-302
Fecha de publicación2012-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaIdentities (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1070-289X • E-ISSN: 1547-3384
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1070289x.2012.681862
OpenAlexW1977557872
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas16
Referencias citadas17

This article reviews the creation of Somali Bantu ethnicity as an object of humanitarian intervention during Somalia's civil war. A variety of local, regional and international actors combined to create the ethnonym Somali Bantu for a group of refugees identified as a persecuted minority by the UNHCR and the US government and selected for resettlement in the United States. I track the emergence of the name and its affective dimensions for those who embrace Somali Bantu identity and assess criticisms of its authenticity and legitimacy. The creation of Somali Bantu identity reveals critical dimensions of how race is translated across time and space. Since a fundamental dimension of Somali Bantu identity is based on presumptions of racial difference, the article traces the salience of constructed difference for social hierarchies within Somalia, colonial projects in Somalia, refugee camp life in Kenya, US resettlement policy and diaspora politics in the United States. Keywords: diasporaSomali Bantuhumanitarianismrefugeesraceresettlement Acknowledgements I am grateful to Chandra Bhimull, Daniel Mains, Mary Beth Mills and anonymous reviewers for their comments and to Colby College for funding my research in the United States. Notes 1. For an interesting iteration of this effort, see the New York Times editorial by two World Bank managers urging public and private entities to issue 'diaspora bonds' to Africans living in the diaspora. The authors suggest that because of their patriotism and ongoing connections to their homeland, members of the diaspora might be less concerned about the risk of currency devaluation and lower interest rates, and more concerned about assisting in development on the African continent than other investors. 'Homeward Bound' by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Dilip Ratha, New York Times, 11 March 2011. 2. During my year in Banta, my field assistant, Ali Ibrahim, and I together collected and translated detailed oral histories from more than dozen Banta elders as well as community and clan histories from elders in the surrounding area (see Besteman (Citation1999), also Menkhaus (Citation1989) and Cassanelli (Citation1982)). 3. Eno (Citation2008) offers an overview of jareer status (see also Besteman (Citation1999), in which Banta is called Loc). 4. The panel, 'Recent Shifts in Lewiston's Refugee Population,' was part of a program for MLK day in January 2006. 5. The focus group was part of a 2010 project, which I mentored, by the Somali Bantu Youth Association to produce a history book for their peers based on their interviews with their elders. The book is available at http://www.sbyam.org/id34.html. 6. For one family's account, see Besteman (Citation2009); see also The Somali Bantu Experience website, www.colby.edu/somalibantu. 7. Kenneth Menkhaus says this was Zimbabwean Leonard Kapungo, the UNOSOM Director of the Department of Political Affairs from 1992 to 1995 (personal communication, 20 March 2011). 8. Interview, Portland, Oregon, 18 July 2007. 9. See Van Lehman (Citation1999), Chanoff (Citation2002), Horst (Citation2006). 10. See Van Lehman (1999) for a description of this effort. Hundreds of Somali Bantus settled on their own in Tanzania, eventually gaining citizenship (see Declich (Citation2010)). 11. I learned that Australia also subscribed to a racialized understanding of Somali Bantu identity when I was asked by a government representative to analyse photographs of asylum applicants to provide an authoritative statement about whether or not they were Somali Bantu based on their physical appearance

Bantu languages · Ethnic group · Geography · Linguistics · Sociology · Somali · Anthropology · Computer Science · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration